Hitachi DZ-HS300A Camcorder Reviewby John NeelyPublished on May 2, 2007 4:00 PM
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The Hitachi DZ-HS300A ($599 MSRP) is an interesting camcorder, even in a year marked by a veritable flowering of diversity. There are standard definition cams that record to DVD, flash, HDD, and tape in DV and numerous flavors of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 compression, not to mention a wide range of HD cams that record to as many media types. The Hitachi DZ-HS300A marks another emerging trend: dual media video recording, to both DVDs or to an onboard 8GB HDD. If you’ve ever spent a day recording a family reunion with a DVD camcorder, and filled up a fistful of DVDs before lunch, you already may have fantasized about this unit. Yes, it records to DVD, offering the usual sub-20 minutes of recording time at its highest-quality setting – but the HDD extends that recording time beyond 100 minutes. What’s more, you can dub that footage from HDD to DVD in-camera! But, before you click over to your favorite electronics site to order up your own DZ-HS300A, you’d be advised to read the fine print below. What follows is a very large yellow flag.
The Front (5.75)
The front of the DZ-HS300A borrows its looks from a majority of Hitachi’s DVD camcorders. Up top, you’ve got your 25x optical zoom lens with a focal length of 2.2mm-55mm. The good news is, the HS300A bears lens threads with a .5mm pitch and 34mm filter diameter. This is conducive to alternate lens applications such as a fish eye extension for that rap video, however, we doubt you’d want to shoot anything but home videos on the HS300A. Directly below the lens is an oval-shaped recording indicator light that comes to the rescue on days when a camera operator has gone AWOL and the subject must quickly hit the record button and run into frame. A notch down on the totem pole of blandness lies the built-in stereo microphone, which is conveniently placed out of harm’s way in regards to a stray finger that could pollute the audio recording with unwanted muffling. Last in line is a fairly obscure silver port cover housing the A/V out and USB terminals. Hitachi’s port cover design is so seamless, we could just imagine a novice point-and-shooter ruthlessly stripping down the body of the HS300A as minuscule bolts and springs fly everywhere before abandoning all hope for finding the USB connection.
The Right Side (3.75)
There’s not too much going on here. The right side of the HS300A is home to the side-loading DVD disk hatch that opens to a generous 70 degrees. This design will come in handy when you are shooting with a tripod and need to frequently change disks because the maximum recording time is a wholesome 18 minutes in Xtra mode. With a side-loading hatch, you won’t have to continuously remove the camcorder from the tripod in order to change disks. That’s a big plus in our books. Another praise-worthy feature is the hand strap. With a burly extended fixture protruding from the bottom right of hand side of the camcorder’s body in conjunction with the internally mounted left side of the strap, the HS300A’s hand strap endures a great deal of pressure. Unlike other camcorders that attach at least one side of the strap to the tape hatch, (not a good move) the HS300A is devoid of potential wear and tear in that department. The camcorder feels reasonably comfortable in the palm of the hand, however, the bottom ridge on the right side has the tendency to dig in to the bottom of the hand, which does not compliment long bar mitzvah documentaries.
The Back (5.5)
In back, starting from the top left is the HS300A’s rubberized retractable viewfinder. Once pulled out, the dioptric adjuster is accessible and slides horizontally. Although the viewfinder extends approximately 3/4 of an inch, the chunky battery that sits below juts out almost as much, greeting your face with unnecessary bulk. To the right of the viewfinder at the very top is the Access/PC light that monitors DVD or HDD recording. Directly below is the disk eject button, which is triggered by sliding the spring-loaded switch down. Wait about three seconds and you can load and reload till the cows come home. Underneath the disc eject button is the spring loaded battery release button. It functions efficiently, but be careful not to inadvertently trigger the record button while attempting to maneuver your finger around the cluttered rear end of the HS300A. Speaking of the record button, the mode dial sits in the middle of the right side’s outer edge. Here, you have the option to click into DVD, HDD, or SD mode. Underneath the mode dial is a tiny lock switch preventing an accidental slip into DVD mode while filming in HDD mode. All in all, the back of the HS300A is functional, a bit crammed, and simplistic.
The Left Side (3.0)
Here’s where it all goes downhill. We’ll start with the oval-shaped menu button panel located in the upper right hand corner. While Sony has its touch screen, Canon has its joystick, and Panasonic is fond of the rear-mounted LCD navigation dial, Hitachi channels its LCD menu control design from the stone age. The circular side-mounted menu control is gawky and awkward, and in fact deserves its own word: Gawkward. This design requires the shooter to continuously look at the control panel while shuffling through the menu and adjusting the image control buttons, which are located in the LCD cavity (we’ll get to those in a minute). Within this panel, you also have a dubbing button (for throwing recorded video from the hard drive to a DVD), disc navigation button (which allows you to cycle through recorded video clips saved to the hard drive), Menu button, and Stop/Exit button. If you think accessing these buttons is a pain, get a load of the image control panel located in the upper right corner of the LCD cavity. Here you have five inconspicuous flat buttons: Full Auto, Focus, Exposure, Backlight Compensation, Display, Quick Menu, and Finalize (for DVD). In order to, let’s say, focus the HS300A while recording, you have to find the little bugger in the LCD cavity, then lamely control the focus using the wonky menu navigation control. Think of all the footage wasted just by fiddling around with these sorry little buttons. Unless you have a photographic memory, this camcorder will not be fun for manual control fanatics. Underneath this pathetic panel is the SD card slot, which actually opens out from the bottom of the camcorder.
The left side of the Hitachi DZ-HS300A with the LCD open (left) and open (right)
The Top (4.25)
The top of the HS300A houses the coolest feature on the entire camcorder: the Sleep/Restart button. Turn off all the lights and press this button. A bluish, silvery glow emits from within the translucent plastic frame of the button. Yup, that’s about as cool as it gets on the HS300A. Other than that, you have your buttery zoom toggle and Photo/Select button. All three of these controls are located at the base of the top, near the back.
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